This is the conclusion that I am coming to as well.gpvillamil wrote:Well, PD is free, so the question is whether or not you want to buy Max/MSP/Jitter, isn't it?
PD, as a programming language, is more developed than Max: data structures stand out as a particular difference.
However, as a development environment, Max 5 is definitely smoother and easier - it feels a lot more modern.
Jitter's main advantage over GEM is the years of development, and the documentation. Also somewhat better for working with OpenGL and shaders, though this is changing.
Max has a number of extensions, like the Max Toolbar or Jamoma, that go a long way to shortening the learning curve.
I would go ahead and get Max, since you can get a student price. Learn Max using all the various tutorials and the great documentation. Then, get PD and spend some time exploring the differences. You might find that you'll want to use PD for specific projects, maybe based on things like the visual data structures it supports.
I just got up, so I'm going to check those vids you guys posted in a bit, but I forgot to mention earlier that I'm pretty much all mac, so VVVV is unfortunately out of the question - I'll edit the first post to reflect that. It's a shame too, I was looking at V4 prior to starting this thread and spent about an hour just checking out different stuff on their website before I started realizing that I saw no Mac references, then I check the compatibility page, Windows only. It really would be quite the contender if I ran windows.
Anyway, I'd still like to see examples of visuals of either M/M/J or PD/G if you guys have them - I'd love to see what everyone has going on, for sure, and thank you guys for the advice/vids so far!